Hunting-Memories of the Past

Fading Memories.

2009-07-06T20:12:00.000-07:00

Memories don't just pop into mind for many of us, they are spawn by a smell of something that we've smelt before, a site of something we've seen before or maybe even a word phrase we used to here or be told by someone we knew long ago. For me many of my memories have come back to me through the old photographs my parents show me or give me as they become older and want me to have. As a kid growing up, a trip to Picther, Oklahoma the week of the 4th of July was a scheduled vacation for the family to visit my grandparents and of coarse fishing was always on the agenda. It wasn't until my senior year in high school that I began my deer hunting legacy even though I had hunted other wild game previously. That first year of whitetail deer hunting set things in motion for me that has lasted more than 40 years now and the memories I had and made are enough to last me for a lifetime. Though my memories come and go through my mind as I get older and I'm sure there are things I'll forget, Ill never be able to write all my memories down here on my web page before my time is up. Stories of days gone by that are told aloud are often forgotten within years of telling them but stories put to print are remembered and passed on through future generations for life. This is why I started this website and will continue to add to it as often as I can remember a memory to write.

Is Poaching Hurting Our Wild Game?

2009-05-29T02:46:00.000-07:00

Many years ago when I first started hunting wild game of all kinds, game was abundant. Today, I find it harder to find a place to hunt, people willing to hunt by the laws set forth by our wildlife resource agencies and wild game in abundance as it used to be years ago. Now I know that where I live the farmers have alot of problems with hunters crossing their fences to hunt without permission and trash being left behind by hunters and make-out parkers ( kids parking on the side of the roads to make out at night or day ), fences being cut, livestock getting shot not only by hunters but by drive-by shooters and farm land being destroyed by vehicles driving on wet muddy grounds but this doesn't mean that there isn't some hunters out there that don't respect the lands and the owners and the wild game. Though disease does claim many of our wild game animals that still doesn't account for the drastic decline of nearly half the wild game animals. Yes the human population expanding throughout the countryside is taking a great toll on our game but that only causes the game to move to new locations. Poaching is what I believe to be the biggest problem with our wild game decline and I've watched this happen many times throughout the years I've been hunting. Hunters don't like being told they can't shot but one buck if the limit is four and four show up in the field in front of them. Hunters don't understand the license fees going up almost every year and not seeing any return on this increase only more laws preventing them from filling their tags. Hunters not being able to hunt lands they see big bucks on ( which many never even ask permission to hunt the lands ). Small farms and acreage being hunted with deer only crossing them causing the hunters to shoot or cross the property lines to take a deer. License fees to high for some people to be able to afford them so they hunt deer and other wild game without a license hoping not to get caught ( and most don't ) and not checking in the deer. Folks not able to find a place to hunt so they ride the roads both at night and during the day to hunt wild game, pulling onto farm lands looking for game to shoot. This is what our hunting world is coming to and there has to be some kind of solution to the problem. Our wildlife agencies can't do all the work for us, we've got to help bring this problem under control. Earn the respect of the farmers and the community and show them you can be an ethical hunter who understands the cost they sustain in farming and values of their property. Support the wildlife agencies in your area and work with them to control the poaching problems we all face, reporting any suspected poaching. Share your wild game with the farmland owners and your community citizens, the elderly and the poor. Through this process we will all gain in a greater outlook on the outdoors and the wildlife that lives for our hunting heritage to continue for years to come.

40 Years of Our Heritage--- Is It Dying?

2009-04-17T02:20:00.000-07:00

Years ago when I was young and full of life hunting and fishing was my world.It was the only thing that I could do that I did well as far as a hobby. It didn't matter what time of year it was I always had someone ready to go hunting or fishing. That was when I lived at Lascassas, Tennessee and had grown up there knowing everyone and they didn't care back then if you hunted or fished on their property. Now days I live at Sparta, Tennessee and it seems as though you have to go through an act of congress just to find a place to hunt or fish and then it takes you a year or so to learn the woods and waters to be able to do any good at taking game when you go on an outdoors adventure. Now days you either have to lease a farm to hunt, know someone with a big farm to hunt or own a big farm yourself just to hunt unless you go to a management area where your hunting with alot of other people around you which lessens your chances of taking game. Even people with big ponds full of fish who don't even fish the ponds don't want you fishing them. The world has changed so much in the past 40 years and most of it is the people in the world doing the changing. Land being cleared, land being sold of for homesites and condos, land being posted as " no trespassing " and land changing hands from farmers to large holding companies that you don't even know who owns them and can't find out cause they live in another state somewhere. Then there is the cost involved with going on an outdoor adventure which is getting to be outrageous as well. The cost of tackle, putting your boat in the water, licenses, bait, gas, leasing land to hunt on, hunting gear, scouting trips, ammo, processing, taxes and even your health keeps going up every year. What are we to do watch our heritage die out before we do in years to come?. As we grow older we tend to hunt and fish much less then when we were younger and thats one reason we all look to find young adults who we hope will get interested in hunting and fishing enough to carry on our heritage. Schools are teaching our children and grandchildren our heritage sports now but what good does that do if theres nowhere to go?. Many of them will find it just as hard to find a place to go on an outdoors adventure as we do and may end up giving up the heritage due to lack of a place to go and cost. Everything in our heritage today has to do with money. Greed has driven and is driving the price of our heritage to a place where none of us want it to be--- extinct. With the rising cost of everything beginning with taxes and filtering down from there, everyone wants a piece of the pie. They all want their share of the growing economy which includes our heritage. From my view point the government is working in a way to prevent any of us from having a heritage to pass on to our children and grandchildren within years to come. They want us to give up our guns so they rise the price of taxes, our licenses and anything else that has to do with our outdoor adventures that they have a hand in which makes it harder for us to be able to afford our heritage sports. Then everyone else rises their prices to offset those price increases and it snowballs from there as it has for the past 40 years. Though many of us don't see the really big picture here it is a growing trend that our heritage is dying off faster then we think. Take a good long look around you at our young adults and find out just how many of them are really into outdoor sports today--- not as many as when we were growing up. Our heritage is dying fast and we have to find a solution to preserve it if it is to survive. What is the answer? I don't know but we have to do something soon or it will be gone forever and we'll be left with only our memories of our heritage.

June Bugs and Grasshoppers for Catfish.

2009-02-28T18:38:00.000-08:00

Although I can't remember the year of this grand fishing trip, I still remember everything about the trip as if it were yesterday. It took place in Pitcher, Oklahoma where my grandparents, aunts and uncles lived. It was mid-summer, hot temperatures and the June bugs were out everywhere. My Uncle Bill told us kids to go out and catch a bunch of June bugs then when it got dark we were to go walk through the tall grass and weeds and catch large grasshoppers. After procuring the bait we all loaded up in my uncles 1958 chevy Cheyenne pick-up a headed to the river with the camper in tow. On the way tho the river my uncle stopped at the package store and picked up some beer ( which was high on the must take along list ). As we traveled to the river my uncle began handing the beer out the window to us kids in the back of the truck when my dad ask what he was doing . My uncles only reply was " I thought they were thirsty " and my dad replied that we were only kids not adults. Once we arrived at the river everything got set-up for the night and we got our trot lines and fishing poles put out. It wasn't long before the fish began biting on the June bugs and grasshoppers and by the time morning came around we ended up catching 52 keeper catfish which weighted from 2 1/2 pounds to 34 pounds. Though the night seemed short, it seemed like it took forever to clean all those catfish when we got home the next morning.

My Last Deer Hunt On A Management Area.

2008-12-15T18:54:00.000-08:00

Years ago I used to hunt on management hunting areas but I quickly figured out this just wasn't my cup of tea. I had the privilege to hunt with one of my high school buddies and good friend Ricky Duke and another friend Chris Ballinger at Motlow State College Management area back in 1986. Now Ricky was to meet us there opening morning to give us a little insight on the best areas to hunt and where we could hunt as not all the management area was open to hunting. After getting the lowdown on the hunting areas we set of to hunt what was actually the back side of the management area. Ricky went to the left of us and Chris and I planned on following a fire access roadbed down through the woods and cross over a couple of hollows before setting up to hunt. As Chris and I walked in , we came upon a hunter sitting up on a ladder platform stand that became very rude and impolite and vulgar toward us telling us that he was hunting in that area and for us to get out of there and go somewhere else. At the time I was young and quick tempered and this guy made me mad very quickly by trying to claim the woods as his own hunting area. So at that time I was carrying a Remington 300 magnum and turned to my hunting partner, which put the barrel of my rifle pointing straight at the ladder stand, and clicked the safety off the rifle and ask Chris if he heard what that big fat m*****F***** had said to us?. When the hunter heard the rifle safety click off his eyes got really big and he decided not to say anything else to us as we moved off further into the woods behind him which was where we were headed for anyway. AS we walked further down into the hollow we could start to see there was blaze orange everywhere in that area and I was still mad from my encounter with the rude hunter. I raised my rifle and shot into a large oak tree then hollered out " There he goes boys yell get him ". Blaze orange was everywhere looking for the deer and we moved off further still into the woods over three more hollows before finally setting up to hunt. We traveled so far back into the woods we were hunting on the management area property line which joined a big farm. Chris sat by a big tree watching the hollow and I had set up watching the woods at the property line hoping a deer would come from the farm into the woods. As luck would have it a nice six point buck did cross over into the woods from the farm but the brush was real thick and my shot didn't connect. When we got ready to leave we had gotten turned around and found ourselves coming out in the town on the back side of the management area. Luckily Ricky had already figured out where we would be coming out from and had come around the road to get us and return us to our truck.This was the last time I ever hunted deer on a management area and as long as I can find property to hunt behind closed/locked gates I won't be hunting management areas again. Just remember everyone has the same rights to hunt on any management area so don't make the other hunters mad at you-- be polite.

My Mentor To Our Heritage.

2008-09-28T01:53:00.000-07:00

Some twenty years ago I had a mentor who helped me learn about deer hunting. How to shoot a bow, what signs to look for during scouting trips, tree stand locations, field dressing my deer, bucthering, packaging and cooking my venison. I in turn passed this knowledge on to young adults getting started and carried them on youth hunts for their first deer. When I moved away from Lascassas, Tennessee I kind of gave up the passing of knowledge to young adults until now. At present day I am mentoring my grandchildren and neighborhood youths in the art of Whitetail hunting and enjoying every minute of it. Each subject I talk to the youths about brings back a memory of my mentor and these memories are what keeps him alive for me to continue my teachings. He was 7/8 Cherokee Indian and could shoot a bow better than any man I know now so I know everything I was taught was better than anything you could ever get from reading books and TV shows. Today, I'm proud I had a teacher and dear friend willing to take the time to show me how to hunt whitetail deer and enjoy the woods and nature as it was meant to be. Our heritage was handed down to me by my mentor and I've passed it on throughout the years as it should be to many young adult hunters. Today my mentor has long ago passed but his spirit lives on through me and my mentoring of young adults. Be a good friend and mentor to some young adult and pass our heritage on to future generations of young hunters trying to learn our great sport as you did when you were young. Mentoring is a great feeling and it keeps our young adults out of trouble with the law. Thank You Charles Duke for passing on such a great heritage to me.

My First Hunting Trip.

2008-09-19T04:37:00.000-07:00

Years have passed since the first hunting trip with my dad. I was only 13 years old and eager to go squirrel hunting with my dad. Though I didn't have my own gun yet I knew from my first trip out into the woods this was what I wanted to do the rest of my life. Anyway, it was fall of 1971 and the leaves had already began to change colors, there was a slight dew on the ground and the weather was a perfect cool morning air with no wind blowing. As we drove to a little country churchyard and parked, Dad explained that we would have to leave by 8:30 a.m. due to church starting. We were hunting the woods behind the church house which were full of big red fox squirrels. As the sun began coming up we could already hear the nuts dropping and the squirrels jumping from limb to limb. We sat by a large oak tree watching and waiting till we could get a clear shot at a squirrel stopped on a trunk or limb of a tree. Dad had given me a 410 single shot shotgun to hunt with and he was using a 22 bolt action with a scope. By 8:00 a.m. we had both taken our limits and was heading for home.It was a couple of years later in life that I found out that my mom didn't like any wild game that was all shot up with shotgun pellets so then was when I began hunting small game with only a 22. My birthday was in October and for my 13Th birthday my parents got me a 22 rifle which I learned to use well and took many a squirrel and rabbit with. To this day I still only hunt small game with a 22 rifle and enjoy every minute I can in the woods whether or not I take game home or not. Today I hunt big game with an occasional trip for small game but my preference is big game animals.

Spoonbill Fishing of Years Ago

2008-07-24T02:24:00.000-07:00

The last tornado that went through Oklahoma wiped out a very large portion of the little town of Pitcher,Oklahoma where I spent alot of my childhood time at my grandparents homes. Though both my grandparents on both sides had passed on some years ago I still have relatives living in Oklahoma. As I watched the news that night of the devastating disaster of the tornado, I quickly found myself thinking back of when I would go down to the Neosho river in March fishing for spoonbill catfish. I would at times spend the better part of a morning casting a heavy 5 oz. sinker with a no.6 trebble hook from a 12 ft. Diawa rod and reel with 30 lb. test line trying to snatch one of the big monsters that circled in-front of the dam waiting for the water to rise up over the dam so they could move upstream to spawn. Many mornings I would catch my fish and be back home by 10:00 and even though the limit back then was 5 fish with no culling, I only took 3 fish to ensure the future of the fish population survived.
We had people who would come down during the run of the spoonbill catfish with buckets and pockets full of money just waiting for some fisherman to catch one of the large females of which carried large black eggs. These onlookers would buy the fish from the fisherman ( usually for $200.00 ) for the eggs which was turned into caviar ( imitation of coarse ). After the eggs were extracted from the fishes belly by knife, the fish was discarded to the ground and fair game for anyone that wanted it for the meat. This practice lead to the downfall of the spoonbill catfish population and within two years the limits were changed to 3 fish and wardens patrolled the river banks during the spoonbill catfish runs. It's been many years since I had the opportunity to go fishing for spoonbill even though we have them here in Tennessee, but I still get excited just thinking about the fun and pleasure I had as a child fishing for them in Oklahoma. Many of the fish I caught would weigh in the range of 35-75 lbs. and I never sold a single fish to anyone.

Bring Gas Prices Down

2008-03-14T20:50:00.000-07:00

This was sent to me via e-mail see if it makes sense to you. THIS IS NOT THE 'DON'T BUY' GAS FOR ONE DAY, BUT IT WILL SHOW YOU HOW WE CAN GET GAS BACK DOWN TO $1.30 PER GALLON.

This was sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. If you are tired of the gas prices going up AND they will continue to rise this summer, take time to read this please.

Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea.
This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May!
It's worth your consideration. Join the resistance!!!!
I hear we are going to hit close to $ 4.00 a gallon by next summer, and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down?

We need to take some intelligent, united action. The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas.

It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.
BUT, whoever thought of this idea has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join with us!

By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $2.00 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $3.19 for regular unleaded in my town.

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace..not sellers.

With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action.

The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.

How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas.

But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL.

If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices.
If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now, don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x10 = 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers.
If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!

If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all!

(If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people.... Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am . so trust me on this one.

How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days !!!

I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you!
Acting together we can make a difference.

If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $2.00 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

Keep it going!!!

Habitat For Humanity

2008-03-14T16:34:00.000-07:00

First founded in 1942 by Farmer and Clarence Jordan, in a small interracial, Christian farming community outside Americus, Ga. . Then in 1965, a new idea called " Partnership Housing " in which those in need of adequate housing and volunteers would work together side by side to build simple, decent homes. The homes would be built on no profit and no interest charged loans. In 1968, Koinonia Farms laid out 42 half acre sites with a four acre community park and recreational area. Donations came in from around the country, homes were built and sold to families in need and the basic model began the Habitat For Humanity. In 1976 Habitat For Humanity International was born and in 1984 former U. S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalyn joined the Habitat work trip. The present results on Habitat For Humanity is that more than 200,000 homes and more than 1,000,000 people in more than 3,000 communities worldwide have decent affordable shelter. An idea turned into reality by the grace of God and people working with people for the people of the world.

Surprize Birthday Gift

2008-02-21T04:21:00.000-08:00

The year was 1992 , early Feburaury and I was working a commercial plumbing job in Murfreesboro, Tenn.. My job had just played out as we finished the construction on the new city hall so my wife and I decided it was time for a change. We packed up everything we had and moved to Bushnell,Florida where I started a job at Ace Hardware in Wildwood,Florida until a training class as a correctional officer started in June after which I was hired on as a correctional officer in the kitchen at Marian Correctional Facility in Ocala,Florida. We were living near my brother-in-law ( Allen Cole ) who was also a correctional officer and my birthday was approaching in October but deer season was opening in September and one evening after work I was picked up by my wife,brother-in-law and sister-in-law and was told we were going to dinner but that my brother-in-law had to go get his bow worked on first. We got to this little country bow shop and as I walked in I began looking at all the bows and eqippment on the walls when the owner approached asking if he could help me. I told him I was just looking while waiting on my brother-in-law an the man told me he had a new bow that I might like.The man went in the back room and came out with a new PSE Blacklightening, handed it to me and ask what I thought of it. At that moment my wife stepped up and whispered in my ear that it was mine and happy birthday at which time the owner also fixed it up with arrows,sight,release,eye sight, broad heads, silencers and even took me outside to his range and helped me sight it in. Now you talk about someone that was blown away with surprize and happy, that was me. Today I still have the same PSE bow with eqippment and have killed a few nice deer with it. Perhaps one day I will buy a new bow but nothing I feel will ever compare to my Pse Blacklightening which I will continue to use till I can't shoot any more. Thank you Honey for giving me the best surprize birthday gift of a lifetime,one that I'll always charish.

The Old Farm House

2008-02-02T16:37:00.000-08:00

Ive been sitting around the house this weekend trying to come up with a new memory from my past that might strike an idea for next years huntso here it is in a nut shell( or maybe something bigger). I've wrtten about dreams coming true and it put me to thinking about a dream I had several years ago which took place in Lascassas, Tn. on a farm with an old abandoned, weathered farm house standing in the middle of the property and the woods grown up all around it. As I dreamed I seen myself on a camping trip in which my hunting buddies and I stayed the weekend in the farm house to hunt the farm and the weather was cold. We awoke on saturday morning after a night of hard drinking ( beer and cheap wine ), got dressed and ready to go hunting, headed out the front door. Upon stepping off the end of the front porch we all paused to relief our stomachs of the nights drinks then headed off to our picked hunting sites. As we got to the back corner of the farm house, we spooked a small group of squirrels playing on the ground which in turn spooked a herd of deer that was feeding 45 yards from the farm house one of which was a really nice tall racked buck. As luck would have it nobody got a chance for a shot due to everyone with unloaded guns, slow reactions and very bad hang-overs. Now you can imagine 5 hunters hunting with hang-overs in the woods with guns-- that's SCARY and STUPID. Needless to say my drinking days while hunting are long over and has become a seldom ever drinker now but I still try to hunt every chance I get. I returned to this old farm house the following week and did manage to take a small buck but never returned again and the property has now been turned into a houseing development area---another lost hunting area due to mans greed for money.

Our Economy--- Past and Present

2008-01-23T18:43:00.000-08:00

As I set here at my computer pondering my next post I find myself thinking about the economy of today and wondering how much longer it will be before we are put officially into a recession. Some folks say we are already there but thinking back I remember a day my parents had been digging through some of their old photographs and researching their genealogy. As they showed the photos to me they explained the photos were of some of my relatives back in the 1930's and 1940's during the recession period and you could tell from the photo that times were really hard on folks. Some of their photos went back into the 1800's and was of folks trading foods for goods or services. A document my parents showed me told of one relative at the time of his marriage bought acreage property with a house on it for .50 cents and a mule and a bushel of apples. If our economy doesn't get better soon that may be the way we will all end up. I've seen this trend for years now in the bigger cities as the homeless and starving stand on street corners and interstate off ramps holding signs asking for work for food or money and there seems to be no end in sight for this trend of life.Sure the government says it will help by building homes for the homeless but in Nashville,Tn. the plans for building a 200 room complex for the homeless was set aside to build a new sports arena costing billions of dollars which I see could go along way toward helping the homeless and the economy. But I just a country hick town fellow with little knowledge of how to foresee turning the economy around to make things better. Perhaps it's just the fact that the rich folk think if it doesn't make them money then why give the money to help. The way I see it if it comes down to it and the recession hits hard I'll help anyone except the rich then they'll have to pay me dearly for my help. Bush and the senate know what to do to prevent us from falling deeper into debt and having such a recession from happening but refuse to do the right thing until it's to late if it isn't all ready.Stocks have fallen all around the world due to an anticipated recession and the government just sits back waiting for it to happen.The economy is bad now but it will get worst before it gets better with no telling how long the recession will last.

I'm back

2008-01-20T18:47:00.000-08:00

Thanks to each and everyone of you Im back up and getting ready to start my posting again folks. the heart felt encouragement and kindness everyone left on my last postings is all I could think about while I was gone except my hunting whitetails for the past 3 months that is. Be prepared for I'm back and don't plan on stopping again without a real tradgedy this time.

memories-- My Last Post

2007-10-17T16:17:00.000-07:00

This is to be my last post to all the bloggers out there reading them. It's finally come down to my giving up hunting for good as of this weekend I'll be pulling all my stands out of the woods and selling them sometime after the first of the year along with all my hunting equipment. At this time I would like to thank everyone who has visited my sites and those of you who have left comments. I will continue to visit everyones sites till the first of the year at which time my websites will be deleted and I'll sign off blogger for good. Again thank you for visiting my sites and best of luck hunting this year. David Voyles aka Deerslayer

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TODAY/ I'M ONLY 27

2007-10-10T20:15:00.000-07:00

It's my birthday today and I'm only 27 years old. I'm not planning on doing anything after work today including writing (sorry folks).birthday on October 11.

Hunting-- A renewed Memory of the Past

2007-10-09T02:17:00.000-07:00

On my other site I wrote about the problems of wild stray dogs and atv's hurting my hunting trips. Back in the old days I remember that atv's were just a way to get to the field or woods and never rode into the woods while hunting season was on except to retrieve a deer but not today folks,today youths ride just about anywhere they feel like it without regards to the hunters in the woods. As for the wild stray dogs I can remember being out hunting ans shooting any dog that didn't belong to the land owner( per his permission) as they were chasing and killing his livestock. I have shot dogs at 250-300 yards away just for this reason and looks like I may get the chance to do so again come rifle season. Stray dogs become a hunters and farmers worst enemy and for this reason I do take them out every chance I get. I've had deer chased by dogs and decided to shot the dogs first over the deer which helped improve my hunting farmlands and helped the farmers livestock as well. My theory on dogs in the field or woods is "If you see them in the woods, leave them in the woods".

Hunting With Young Adults

2007-09-30T18:15:00.000-07:00

As many of you know I consider juveniles or youths "Young Adults" but this never even entered my mind until I started writing on the Internet. I've done alot of hunting with the young adults around the community were I growed up but have slowed down since moving here to White County, Tennessee. If you have been reading my other site and you look at my last post you'll see that I am about ready to give up on hunting altogether. Now that's not to say that my hunting career has come to an end what I am thinking about doing is working with the young adults of the communities around my area and possibly taking up a new aspect of hunting. One that will still enable me to be active in the woods and fields but will also help our heritage to survive longer and better then it has in a long time. I'm considering the possibility of maybe becoming a " Hunter Education Certification Officer " for the "State of Tennessee". Though this probably won't happen this year it is something that I've been considering for some time now as there are a great many young adults out there today that can't get the certification before the season due to the dates or transportation or no parent/buddy with the time for the classes. I may still hunt some of the time but this seems like a far better way of preserving our heritage for the young adults.

Memories of My Dad

2007-09-09T04:09:00.000-07:00

My dad has been one of the most influential, outstanding, and knowledgeable men in my life as I grew up and to this day. I've seen him do things that would have been thought impossible with almost nothing to work with and in the most unbelievable places. I guess the memories that stick out most in my life of my dad would be back when I was around 8 or 9 years old. On almost every Sunday morning when we would all get up the first thing we would do is, us boys would go out with a coffee can to hunt for worms while mom would fix a big breakfast. As soon as everyone ate breakfast we would load all the fishing gear into dad's old 68 Chevy truck and head down to one of the rivers close to home for a morning of fishing. It didn't matter where we went fishing though cause we all enjoyed just been out away from home relaxing along the riverbank taking in the scenery,playing in the cool water and spending time with dad.Dad would always try his best to make sure that everyone of us boys would at least catch one fish before we would leave for home. When we would get home it would be us boys that would clean the fish we had caught and that's what we would usually eat for supper Sunday night.Fresh fish,homemade hush puppies and homemade french fries with homemade tartar sauce, man what a meal that would be(can you taste it?). After returning home and cleaning the fish ,us boys would get several of our friends to come over for a few games of football and dad would fire up the grill for some big fat hamburgers for lunch while watching us play football. In the fall I remember dad taking me squirrel hunting to a place behind this old country church with nothing but big hickory nut trees behind it and we would still hunt with our 22 rifles cause mom didn't like any wild game that had been shot with a shotgun( she didn't like picking buckshot or the hair from her meat). As I grew older I practiced with the 22 and got good enough to shot rabbit sitting or running just for mom. Dad was always there to help me work on my truck regardless of what I was doing to it and would always tell me I was doing things the hard way then show me the easy way of fixing it(and he's still there helping me out whenever I need him today).My dad has alot of health problems today and most he doesn't even tell mom about or go get checked by the doctors but he still gets around fairly well for a man to be 83 years old. I don't do funerals very well and don't like to think about his passing coming anytime soon. Mom's health is bad and dad takes care of her really well, I only fear that when one goes they both will go at the same time due to the closeness of their companionship as I have seen all to many end up the same way.God help me when this day comes.

The Cook Shack Question

2007-09-03T17:28:00.000-07:00

Gabby at the cook shack had this one and I thought it was worth reviving for a second glance see what you think. How many do you remember ?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall. Real ice boxes.Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards. Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.

Older Than Dirt Quiz:
Count all the ones that you remember, NOT the ones you were told about ! Your ratings at the bottom.

1. Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes
6 Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines8. Newsreels before the movie9. P.F. Flyers 10. Butch wax
11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933)
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S&H Green Stamps
16 Hi-fi's
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19 Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young.
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older.
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt !

I might be older than dirt but those memories are the best part of my life.

Don't forget to pass this along !!

Especially to all your really OLD friends....

Back In The Saddle Writing Again

2007-09-02T23:09:00.000-07:00

I'm back in the saddle writing again as I think I have the accident insurance company going my way now and I have the grandson's getting ready for hunting season but as for my stands I've decided to leave them where they are this year and give it another go in the same place cause I was told by a good ole boy that where I'm hunting is exactly where he has seen a really big buck running to as an escape route when hunting season begins every year and besides that there's plenty of large acorn trees around the section of woods I'll be hunting that my grandson's and I can use as cover with help from my camouflage material and the brush which should be good practice for them on masking their scent. I spent the weekend with my family members who came up from Alabama and drank homemade muscadine wine while playing volleyball and cooking out which was really surprising cause I didn't think I could still get around on the court any more(but I can,and did). So now I've been sitting here at my computer since 6:00p.m. reading post,writing comments and sending e-mails to a few of the group and finding some new sites one of which I've added to my links which some of you may like to check out. His site is at http://thetroutzone.blogspot.com/ and he writes about his travels to various places trout fishing. He lives in my neighboring town and we are planning either a creek wading fishing trip or a float trip for smallmouth and largemouth bass then possibly try some of the streams around home which I'm told has some pretty good trout fishing in also. Anyway check his site out when you get time and give him a great welcome to our outdoor society group.

Memories On Hold

2007-08-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

Okay my writing is alittle slow now days and with deer season coming upon me and two grandsons who wants me to take them hunting this year and stands that need moving around I just might have to put my writings on hold for awhile, but don't worry about me cause somewhere in all this camotion I try to find time to keep everybody updated and visit as many of you as I can. For now though this will probably be the last writing I do for awhile till things slow down for me. Everyone stay safe out there this yearand have a great year hunting. Oh yeah I almost forgot if I can download it from the newspaper I'll post my truck which made front page in our little town paper.Yes I was in an accident Friday morning and luckily I'm alright but my truck is gone and right now I'm waiting to see what his insurance is going to do about it. Right now they gave me a 2007 silverado to drive till they settle with me. My son-in-law was also in the truck with me and he to is alright we were both checked out at the hospital and released.You may want to enlarge the article if you want to read it.

Unloaded Guns-- Just a Memory

2007-08-02T16:44:00.000-07:00

This was so many years ago I can't remember the year, however I was still young at heart and full of hunting ideas by the time hunting season came along that year. A good friend of mine ( Mike Matthews ) and I decided to go to a cabin I had access to in Manchester, Tennessee. We left out for the cabin on Friday afternoon and I described the 400 acre farm as best I could to Mike as we traveled. Mike took everything in except the part where I told him to load his gun as soon as we got into the field. As luck would have it we jumped two big bucks out of the creek bed as we drove back to the cabin in the middle of the farm. These two bucks ran across the road in front of us went across and over the hillside before either of us could get out and load our guns for a shot. We followed the bucks carefully over the top of the ridge hoping for a shot at at least one of the bucks but they had both eluded us that evening. We made it to the cabin, had supper, stoked the wood stove for the night and went fast asleep with hopes of taking a buck the next morning. Before daylight Mike and I got up and discussed where we were both going to hunt. Mike decided to hunt the same area as the two bucks where in the evening before and I decided to hunt behind the cabin up on the ridge top. By the time we were ready to leave the cabin we had 6-8 inches of snow on the ground and flurries still coming down. The ridge top I was going to hunt was so steep I had to pull myself up the hill by the barbed wire fence at the property line. Once I reached the top I sat down by a large oak tree and waited for about 2 hours before deciding to give my grunt call a try.With just three grunts of my call a nice ten point came over one side of the ridge and down the other before I could even rise my gun. I got up looked over the side of the hill for the buck but he was gone or hiding in the brush very well and not about to move from his cover. As I returned to the cabin I found Mike still had not returned so being worried that he may be lost in the snow covered woods I began easing my way through the woods to where Mike had told me he would be hunting. As I got close to his stand area I found Mike on the third ridge from his stand looking carefully across the fields below him. By now it was 12:30 p.m. and I got to Mike and ask where all the deer were. He explained that he hadn't seen anything all morning and just then we both spotted something crossing the field below us. I scoped it out and it was a skunk which in those woods were notorious for having rabies. I decided to shoot the skunk just in case and burned it by the cabin then buried it across the stream. We discussed our options of hunting the evening and next day or going back home to hunt there. We decided to go home so we loaded up the Volkswagen and slid on out toward home with nothing to show for the trip except a great memory to talk about for years to come and pass on to our children/ grandchildren. Thanks Mike Matthews for one more memory for my collection.

When I Was Young

2007-07-20T19:16:00.000-07:00

Some thirty years ago I happened across a friend (Ricky Duke), his brother (Steve Duke) and their father(Charlie Duke) who took me into their home and treated me as though I was one of the family members. We became so close that it didn't matter what time of night I showed up at their house they would start cooking something and it didn't matter what it was everybody ate and got full as ticks on cedars( and that's pretty full in case you don't know). Charlie taught me the proper way to hold and shoot my bow and Ricky would practice with me till we got tired or we would go hunting for some kind of wild game.Everlyn(Charlies wife) was always telling a funny story and Granny(Everlyn's mother) was the cook for everyone that came by and there wasn't anything that she couldn't cook that didn't taste great. I hunted for two years before I learned from the best there was and it was then that I started taking deer with every kind of weapon I owned and anything I borrowed from the Duke family. Steve was a walking encyclopedia on deer hunting and was very instrumental in providing me with all the information I needed to take deer anytime of the season I wanted. Sherry Duke( Charlies daughter) was always helpful in the kitchen and she enjoyed every one's company that came by to visit. As the years went by I became alittle distant to the Duke family and have moved five counties away and never seem to have time now to go visit. I have however found out that Granny, Everlyn and Charlie have all pasted away now without my knowing it and Steve has come down with a illness which is taking a heavy toll on him as well. Hopefully before to long I'll be able to go visit them again but it will never be the same without the whole family there together. I guess when your young you take to many things for granted that things will last you your whole lifetime but this story just goes to show you that nothing last forever and sometimes it's short lived. The Duke family has given me so many memories throughout my time with them that I think of them almost daily. There'll be more stories on the Duke family but for this story I'd like to dedicate this one to all the Dukes including Charlie, Everlyn and Granny even though it's abit late for them. Thanks everyone for allowing me to remember a family that means so much to me and remember nothing last forever so cherish every moment you have with your loved ones and friends.

Lend a Helping Hand

2007-07-13T04:13:00.000-07:00

Some of you have sent me e-mails requesting that I update my site with a new posting so this is it. Every now and then there comes a time in our lives when everything just piles up on us and we feel like no matter what we do we just can't get things to go the right way for ourselves. Well I'm at that point now but have decided that everything will work out for the best if I just let it happen as time allows. I've got more work around the home front then I could do in 5 years, my home is turned upside down by my grown children living with me and my wife, and my health is slowly fading away as I grow older but everything will work itself out as life goes on. Life is to short to worry about what will happen if the work doesn't get done, the children stay with you until eternity or your health rapidly deteriorates to a point that you can't do any of the things you used to do when you were young. When you reach this point sit down at home take some time to think of the world as a whole ( not just yourself) and then look at the world around yourself. I think you'll find out that your neighbors are in just as bad a shape as you are and they probably have the same problems or worst. Now think what would happen if everyone actually got out and helped their neighbors work their farmlands as they did back in the old days. Life's little problems come at you fast but with the help of others everything will work out for the best in the end. Just for one whole day forget about everything you have to do around your place and go help a neighbor with his work. Set it up with your teenage children to help a neighbor at least one day a week and see what a dramatic change in every ones life this will create. Now-a-days neighbors don't socialize like they used to due mainly to the fact that there's to must work to be done on their own farm and they don't have time for socializing. Try my suggestion and see how happy you make your neighbors then if things work out as they should the favor will be returned to you ten fold. Think of the way things used to be in the old days then think of how they have changed to today's world, there's a big difference but there doesn't have to be. We can all make things easier just by lending a helping hand. Problems cause stress on everyone but stress can be relieved just by lending a helping hand. Time away from your problems can actually relieve your stress so do something for yourself and help a neighbor out today the rewards will be great.

The Cost of Hunting/Fishing License

2007-06-18T02:04:00.000-07:00

Why is it that the cost of our Hunting/Fishing license keep going up and up and every year there are more license to buy for the different types of hunting you wish to do.It seems as though every time a new type of equipment is allowed to be hunted with you have to buy a different type of license to use it.I can remember when you could buy just a hunting license and hunt anything you wanted from squirrel to bear to deer, wild hogs, dove, pigeons, coyotes, skunk, beaver, bobcat, fox and the list goes on and it didn't matter what you hunted with. Now days you have to buy a different license to hunt just about every game animal and a different license for the different types weapons you use to hunt them. Stop and think about it a minute and you'll realize like I do that every license cost more and more every year and you really get less and less every year for your money. Deer hunting used to be that you could kill 4 bucks whether it was all at once or one at a time and now you have to kill your bucks one at a time and check it in before killing another one. When this idea was put into effect I told game and fish agents that that was just going to bring about more poaching cause if I got the chance to kill all 4 bucks in one morning of hunting that's what I would do, the agent told me just don't get caught. The opportunity never has happened for me to shoot 4 bucks in one morning but it could have if conditions were right. Anyway they keep creating more licenses to buy and don't give you anything else for your money, so why keep separating the license? Why not go back to the old days and let you purchase one license for everything you hunt with for one price and be done with it. Recurve bows, compound bows and crossbows should all be under one license as should rifles and muzzle loaders and pistols. Are they scared someone is going to get one over on them or not buy the right type license for the type hunting they are doing, if so then my solution would cure all the problems and still create the revenue they are looking to get for individual licenses sales. It seems to me that the only thing Game and Fish agencies are interested in is the money they can make from separating all the different types of licenses and charging more each year. They have all these wardens on the road but do you ever see any of them in the field checking the license they sell ? no and do you know why -its because they don't want to get shot. They carry guns now days because some agents have been shot in the field but the fact remains that the agents would rather have the hunters find and report the poachers for them before they do anything about it. Sure you see and hear stories about a poacher being caught but that is by pure accident and is usually someone that really does need the food for his family to eat. We have the wardens to put in the field but do you know how many of them are really in the fields and woods checking licenses ? none that I know of , their always at the checking stations drinking coffee and feeding their faces when they should be out at 4:00 a.m. watching and checking hunters going into the fields and woods before the hunt. This is how our money should be used, not raising fish that can spawn for themselves if left alone to do so. I agree there are some species that need our help but not as many as the agencies would have you think. It's all part of a plot to undermine the hunters into spending more and more money until they finally realize that hunting cost way to much as does fishing, camping and any other outdoor activity we do. Camping now days is by reservation only and on a first come first serve basis and with a limited number of campsites. Just remember the next license you purchase could be your last license and Hunting/Fishing could be gone forever. Check into your local wildlife agency and find out just what exactly your money is being used for and then ask yourself and the agency if any of the money could be used for saving wild game before it's slaughtered.The agencies are heading in the wrong direction and they need our help in guiding them down the right path t5o saving our wildlife for future generations,and higher cost to the hunters/fisher people/outdoors people is not the answer we should expect. If you have regular meetings with the wildlife agencies in your area just ask two simple questions while the meeting is being held--- "Why is it the cost of our licenses keep going up but we see no results from the money to compensate us for the rising cost and why is it poachers can't be apprehended before entering the fields and woods and slaughtering our wild game, if their poachers they have no license so they have no need to be in the woods with weapons for taking our wild game.

No Escape, Tag Your It.

2007-05-27T04:32:00.000-07:00

Okay Othmar you got me on this one so here goes everything I've got for this meme. Everybody we've started a sort of game to help get everyone alittle more acquainted with everyone else and learn alittle about each other.the rules of this meme are as follows. Players start with 8 random facts (true) about themselves. Those of us that are tagged should then post these rules and their 8 random facts. Players should then tag and notify 8 other people who should then follow the rules of the game. It's simple ,it's fun and it's interactive with everyone. This being said and done I can now get to the facts about me so here I go. Fact # 1. Even though I don't have much time for them ,I enjoy just about all sports so long as I'm a particiapant (not on television). Fact # 2. I enjoy spending all my free time with my wife, who is also my best friend and trustworthy companion. Fact # 3. I would really like to retire early on a big farm or ranch with game running plentiful everywhere. Fact # 4. I don't get to spend as much time on the internet ( namely my blog visiting my friends) as I would like too. Fact # 5. I love watching moives about Indians,westerns,horror and of coarse hunting shows. Fact # 6. I'm always looking for a way to make money whether on the internet or around home even though it's not easy to do this most of the time. Fact # 7. Health problems prevent me from doing alot of things I enjoy now-a-days and most things I do I have to do at a slow pace. Fact # 8. Last and final one so here it is. I'm a very patient person about everything I do and will wait for long periods of time for things I really want' but like everyone patience runs thin on everything eventually. Okay now that thats over with on to my list of tags, so here it is folksand if your one of the lucky ones please respond asap and thanks for keeping us going with this. #1.http://huntinginamerica.blogspot.com/ # 2. http://bodocktimes.blogspot.com # 3. http://huntinglife.blogspot.com # 4. http://ndgoon.blogspot.com # 5. http://www.outdooru.blogspot.com 6.http://eastcoasthunting.blogspot.com # 7. http://pahuntfishshoot.com/ # 8. http://www.mikehanback.blogs.com I apologize to everyone and am very sorry for the time away everyone but I've had alot of problems with my computer programs and logging-in to them which should be fixed now I hope so everything is good and back to normal for now.

Turkey's everywhere

2007-04-28T05:33:00.000-07:00

It was a early spring morning somewhere around 1982 and I remember that my hunting partner Ricky Duke had to work on the opening day of turkey season. I on the other hand had the weekend off and headed for the woods early this particular morning in search of the illusive wild turkey. Ricky and I had been scouting this area for about 3 weeks now and seen some very impressive gobblers, so we felt sure we would be able to take one of them come opening day. As I arrived at the site I had chosen it was still plenty dark enough for me to get into the woods and prepare myself for the long mornings wait. No one else had arrived at the site so I knew I had a great chance of taking my bird. As the sun began to slowly peak over the mountain tops and ridges, the woods began to brighten up so I could see and I could tell everything around me was beginning to come to life. The squirrels were playing in the trees and on the ground, the birds were singing and the wind was slightly whispering across the land. I seen it was time to begin my first wave of calls and just as I let off a gobble on my box call a big gobbler was roosted directly over me and flew out to the ground approximately 120 yards away from me. Seeing this as my opportunity, I gave off a few clucks and purrs with my mouth diagram. The large tom answered as did two more in the area and the game was on. I clucked a couple times more and the gobblers gobbled and came closer. Finally one big gobbler came in close enough for me to get ready for a shot when he came in in full strut and drumming like a band core major in full swing. It was a beautiful site just to watch but after a moment I remembered I was hunting turkey now not scouting and quickly regained my thoughts of the hunt. As I raised my shotgun for a shot at the big tom I could see that he wasn't really interested in me but was in reality heading for a group of hens that had came in just below me in a road bed. Despite all the clucking and purring I did the tom just wasn't interested in me and continued heading for the hens till I decided to try running the hens off. Unfortunately for me it also ran the big tom off before I could get a shot so I spent the rest of the morning hunting another tom turkey. needless to say this particular day ended as many of my turkey hunting days have without anything but memories to talk about. I've hunted turkey for five years before giving up on the thought of ever taking one of these smart birds but now the thought returns and maybe one day I'll be lucky enough to take a trophy gobbler before my passing.

Hunting Early Morning Deer

2007-04-09T04:44:00.000-07:00

The third weekend of rifle season had arrived and I was ready for a break from work. I got up early on Saturday morning and was ready to go kill a deer but had to stop first and pick up one of my hunting buddies. I stopped and got James Flowers and as we drove to the farm I had pick out to hunt I explained which stands we would be hunting in and the direction the deer should be moving from. We got to the farm and I got James set in his stand then told him I would be back in about 15-25 minutes.As I went to my stand, which was further back on the farm, I could tell it was a good day for the deer to move and figured that I should see deer early coming to the persimmon trees by my stand. Getting to my stand and having gotten set up just as the sun was starting to come up, I spotted movement in the woods to my left. Not able to see the deers head I grabbed my rifle and got ready for a shot when it stepped out into an opening and I seen horns. I hesitated for a moment then squeezed the trigger and the buck was mine. A fine 5 pointer with a heavy body which ran 20 steps before falling into a tree top and dying. I tagged the deer then drug it about half way back toward the truck before deciding to let James help me finish getting it to the truck. I walked slowly down to where James was and found him still looking for a buck to come out into the field but so far only does had shown up. We sat for awhile longer then decided to give up for the morning,went and got my deer to the truck and off to the checking station we went. That was probably the fastest hunt I've ever had and I attribute that to my pre-season scouting and timing of the deer herd. Knowing the area,the food availability,the weather and the movement of the herd all come together for this hunt to end up with a great memory with another of my past hunting buddies.

Something Different-- 78 lb Flathead

2007-03-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

Well just alittle something different for a change,this time its fishing not hunting as usual. Five years ago my good fishing buddy and I went out setting limb lines and jugs one evening and checking them throughout the night. We caught a few nice catfish but it wasn't until the next morning that we came in with a nice 78 lb flathead catfish which took just about 25 minutes to get into the net.Jugs and limb lines can be fun but the real fun is discovering what is on the other end of the line when you have a fish or turtle on. Turtles are good eating too folks. Don't get me wrong I love fishing with rod and reels but I enjoy jug fishing just as much.Spring is here now and my writing my suffer alittle cause my wife and I love camping on the water almost every weekend from the time it gets warm out at night to the fall. One more thing about fishing or hunting as far as this goes " it's a great way to relief any stress a body may have" and you can meet some really great people while have so much fun and relaxation too.

Hanging Stands---- Grandchildren Onboard

2007-03-25T04:32:00.000-07:00

Last year as I prepared to go finalize my scouting and hang my deer stands some of my 13 grandchildren come by to visit. Their parents never had the time to take them hunting nor the interest to go themselves.The grandchildren wanted to go with me so I cleared it with the parents and away we went to the woods. I had the grandchildren with me and as I arrived at the woods and explained alittle bit about scouting and hanging your stands for hunting season.We soon got into the area where I had chosen to hunt and began looking for old rubs and checking the trails for fresh signs of deer movement. It wasn't look before I found a good rub trail through the area and showed it to the grandchildren. I explained why the bucks rub their antlers on the trees and told them to look for the best tree that would offer protection from the deer seeing them in the stand. Upon picking out the best tree, we began hanging the stand around the tree and setting it up for the upcoming season which was only 4 weeks away. Once the stand was hung and prepared we began to head back to the truck and I took this opportunity to give the grandchildren a lesson in findind your way through the woods to your stand in the dark. I explained they needed to figure out the lay of the land, look at the tree tops, remember road beds and to check at night the stars and the sunset and moon ,any lights visible from the tree stand and anything else they thought might help them to find their way through the woods without a flashlight to and from their stand. Flashlights will scare the deer off as you go to your stand in early morning hours. I also trimmed limbs and branches from trees and bushes as I walked back to the truck to make access to my stand quiter going and coming to my stand. As we arrived at the truck we took time then to talk about the entire outting and to find out if they had decided to make hunting a part of their life long journey. Almost all my grandchildren today want to go hunting with me but none of them have the way to go get their hunter education certificate and I work where I can't take them to get it. The outting was a complete success and we all had allot of fun exploring the woods together.The grandchildren got allot of useful experience for future use of hunting and I got my stands put up for the future hunting seasons till I decide to move them again.

A Farm Worth Hunting in Tennessee

2007-03-13T18:14:00.000-07:00

It was gun season in November and the alarm went off at 3:30 a.m. which is when I normally get up to go hunting. As I began to get out of bed I realized it was raining,just as predicted by the weather channel. I thought to myself "do I really feel like going out in the rain, getting soaked to the bone and probably not seeing anything or stay in bed and sleep all morning." so I laid there for another 45 minutes then got up and went hunting in a drizzle rain to a stand I had at the edge of some large oak trees with thick brush behind them. Probably 30 minutes went by when I began to hear something playing on the ground behind me. I thought it was probably squirrels play but then realized there were no squirrels out in this rain this morning. I slowly picked up my 25-0-6 remington bolt action rifle turned ever so slowly on my stand and there just 15 steps from the tree was 9 does and a small 5 point buck feeding on the acorns that were buried under the leaves that had fallen. I decided to go ahead and try to take the buck even though he was small. As luck was with me this day the deer stayed in the area just long enough for the buck to present a nice broadside shot to me. I tagged the buck then went to the landowners house, where my truck was parked, and the landowner came out asking if I had seen anything. I told him of the buck I had shot and he wanted to take his John Deere 4020 tractor to get the buck out of the field and to my truck. I agreed, we got the buck to my truck and I offered him some or all of the buck once it was dressed out and packaged. He said he would love to have some of the deer meat if it was all right with me.I explained that I loved the sport of the hunt and that his farm was always full of deer if he ever wanted to go along and that he was welcome to any of the meat he wanted. He told me he was too busy with his farming and too old to go hunting anymore but appreciated the offer and that I was welcome to hunt his farmland anytime I wanted without an invite. I have since looked after his livestock, repaired fences and gates and shot stray wild dogs on his farm. This landowner will always be remembered by me for as long as I live as a down to earth, hard working, generous dairy farmer with a respect for the people who help him. Thank you Earl McCrary for living an honest respectable live as a farmer and thanks for the many memories of hunting on your farmland.

Memories of a buck of a lifetime.

2007-02-24T03:23:00.000-08:00

I was working third shift at a printing company and had been talking to some of the guys there about deer hunting.One of the guys wanted to go along with me so we decided to go after work this particular night. Work was finally over so we loaded up our hunting gear and headed out to my father-in-laws farm where I had taken a couple of does during archery season but now it was gun season and time to go for some horns if you know what I mean. Anyway we arrive at the farm just before daylight,grabbed our gear and head for the stands I had put up before archery season. One was overlooking a couple of hay fields and a small dry weather creek bed and the other was overlooking a blackberry thicket with a bush hogged trail straight thru the middle of it and deer trails running everywhere across the thicket. Long about 6:30 a.m. I had a really nice 16 point buck with massive horns come up behind me to within 10 yards of my stand. But as luck would have it the buck sensed something wasn't right turned and trotted back up the thick wooded trail to safety. Two steps more and this buck would have been mine but unfortunately the cedar tree I was using for background cover prevented me from getting the shot of my lifetime. Ten minutes later I spotted a herd of deer moving across the edge of the field down below me next to the dry creek bottom and heading toward the stand James was in. As I waited for James to take the shot I anticipated the direction the deer would retreat to safety and figured I might get a shot myself if James missed. Ten minutes and no shot but just then a big doe came bouncing across my blackberry thicket and I knew what was following her so I quickly grabbed my 243 caliber Winchester rifle and realized I had no place for to steady the gun so I quickly wrapped the sling around my arm, took careful aim figured the buck was approximately 250 yards and as I got ready to squeeze the trigger the buck turned straight away from me. Realizing the only shot I had was right up the bum hole I again sighted across the top of the bucks back squeezed the trigger and the buck went down like someone was behind him and pushed him. I climbed down went around the field to my buck and seen I had taken a very nice wide 8 pointer with 13 inches between the main beams and three inch brow tines. I tagged my buck then took my gear to the truck and found James asleep in the truck.I woke James,we got my buck out of the field,loaded it up,went and checked it in then the real work began, cleaning, dressing and packaging the deer for the freezer and of coarse as always tenderloin and homemade biscuits. hmm hmm good. Though I missed a buck of my lifetime I still had a big smile on my face with the 8 pointer I took and the memories of the hunt. Thanks James for letting this one come on to me while you slept in the truck.

Hunting - Another memory to read.

2007-01-28T08:59:00.000-08:00

It was the middle of November during gun season and I was working from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and was thinking all day of going deer hunting after work. I thought all day till I got off work where I wanted to hunt but the problem was that it had been raining all day with 10 - 15 m.p.h. winds. I got off work headed to one of my favorite hunting sites and as I drove there it came to me just where it would be that I would hunt for the rest of the evening. I parked in an old barnyard road bed and walked back approximately 400 yards crossed the fence after seeing another hunter and crossed the field to a elm tree on the corner with a cedar tree next to it which gave me some cover from the elements ( rain and wind ) and cover from the deer spotting me. After settling in to my tree for the evening I watched the field and the grown up cedar tree thicket next to me for any movement as darkness quickly came upon me. As luck would have it about 40 minutes after I settled into the tree two doe's and a nice buck was spotted running across the open field toward the cedar thicket.The deer came from where I had seen the other hunter and I couldn't figure why this hunter didn't attempt to shoot the buck but was glad for whatever the reason was. I raised my 35 caliber rifle a squeezed a shot which hit just under the bucks feet. The buck turned heading down the fence row and I knew it was going to cross the fence into the cedar thicket where it would disappear possibly forever from me,so I quickly reloaded for a second shot. I knew the buck was almost at the low spot in the fence where they had been crossing and I had to be fast. As I drew the scope across the top of the bucks back I again squeezed the trigger and the buck then turned running back across the field where it laid down in a small patch a tall sage brush. I watched the sage brush patch for 5-10 minutes then quickly got down out of my tree and began walking toward the sage patch.As I got close enough to the patch to see the buck I realized he was dead and then looked to admire his rack and at first glance took it to be a nice 6 point but then seen it was a great 8 point with a rack that matched one I had taken two years earlier just one field back from where I was. I also noticed a bullet hole in the bucks backbone area but no bone was there just the spinal cord hanging in between both sections which puzzled me as to how this buck could run or even walk with this kind of hole in it's backbone. I later found out that a friend of mine had shot a big buck at some 350 yards and knew he had hit it but was unable to find the buck until he saw my buck and told me that was the buck he had shoot the weekend before I had killed it. Unbelievable what deer can go though to survive but that's what makes us memories isn't it?

Hunting- Memories of the past

2007-01-14T18:45:00.000-08:00

It was the 2nd week of January 1985. A 6-8 inch snow on the ground and a break in the weather. A friend of mine (Jim Thomas ) and I had either sex whitetail deer permits for Rutherford County, Tennessee. 3:30 a.m. on a saturday morning we began our 20 mile journey to try to fill our deer permits. As we drove down the road I began explaining the terrain to Jim as this was to be Jim's first deer if he could find and make the shot placement count.The road trip was very treacherous due to snow and ice covering the road. When we finally reached our destination,we got geared up just as the sun was beginning to rise. We began slowly moving across fields, through thickets and through the woods in search of our prey as we decided to spot and stalk our first day. After approximately 1 1/2 hours of hunting we spotted 5 deer coming out of some cedar tree fields and into an open Johnson grass field. We were at 200 yards and Jim quickly decided to allow me 1st shot at filling my deer permit. I quickly knelt down raised my 6 mm Remington bolt action rifle, put the cross hairs of my 3x9x40mm Bushnell scope on the top of the deers shoulder and easily squeezed the trigger. Though I was hoping for a 300+ yard shot, the 200 yard shot with my 6 mm rifle was just to easy and I soon was filling out my tag for placement on the deer I had just taken. It was then time to find Jim a deer to fill his tag with. Jim helped me get my deer on my shoulders and we began a large circle back to the jeep. When we got to the jeep we headed to another farm which joined the farm we had just hunted. WE geared up and headed out across the fields again. By now it was around 9:00 a.m. and as we crossed the first field we spotted three deer crossing a gate opening between the 2nd and 3rd field which was estimated by me to be about 350 yards. Jim debated for a second and decided it was too far of a shot for him and wanted to move closer. I advised against it but he insisted,so we began moving closer and just as I predicted the deer spotted us and ran off before Jim could get the shot. By 9:30 a.m. we had moved into a wooded road bed and was heading back toward the jeep. Once again we spotted a group of deer walking through some very thick brush and trees and Jim was still unable to get a shot. We got to the jeep and decided to give it another try on Sunday morning but as we drove around the ice covered road three deer crossed infront of us and stopped in a gully bottom just passed a fallen tree in a brair patch. Jim stopped the jeep, observed the deer which began feeding out from behind the fallen tree and decided to try for a shot. He stepped out of the jeep with my 6 mm rifle,slipped ever so slowly over a low spot in the barbed wire fence, and using a sapling to steady himself took careful aim. I, still in the jeep observing the deer, was whispering instructions to Jim and hoping for his shot. Jim then squeezed the trigger and his deer dropped like a rock. I climbed out of the jeep, crossed the fence, congratulated Jim on a fine shot which was at 175 yards dead on and we slowly walked to Jim's deer lying in the snow. Before Jim approached the deer, I instructed Jim not to disturb the snow around the deer but to walk up to the head and neck area from behind it. Jim followed my instruction, I ask him to kneel down and hold up the deers head, at which time I then took a photograph of Jim and his first deer. Jim took many more photos of this deer but none will give him the memories of this hunt as the one I took while in the field just after the shot made. This was one of my best memories of many throughout my hunting lifetime of over 30+ years and I hope many more to come "God willing ". So now leave me a comment and an address so I and others can read some of your memories.