wooly

I'm stuck at a hulking 152 lbs of winter weight from my summer time 150! Maybe I'll take a walk to the fridge in a bit to grab some breakfast and burn some of that off!

36 degrees here this morning. I don't even like to deer hunt when it's this cold..... ain't no way I'm sitting out there for spring gobblers in it. Birds here like sunshine and 70's just like me! I'm sure I'm not missing out on much today.

Sweet! Looks like a decent size bear. I'd be out there with a jelly dounut on a stick trying to lure him in closer,lol Nice shots!

Thanks again guys! I struck out on the mushrooms again today, but I bumped into my little buddy again on the other side of the creek! He's not one for posing just yet, but he's a natural when he's in front of the camera! Anyone know what that ground cover plant with the blue flowers is called? It grows like a carpet down here and really hides the fawns well.

Thanks guys! Elmo, by the time I spotted the little rascal he was only 3 or 4 ft away. I knew he wasn't going anywhere so I looked around for momma and didn't see her, so I spun on my 18-55mm lens and got down to his level. By then I was more like 1.5-2ft away and that's why you only see 6 shots here. Mom would have had to clear a creek to put the hooves to my head but that thought was always on my mind. The doe leave their fawns here a lot during the day every year and are seldom ever around but she'll come back for him. The fawns I find here have a very good survival rate from what I've noticed compared to fawns further up the hill that have coyotes and other critters to contend with. This spot is relatively close to houses where predators don't hang around much day or night. Year after year they just love to hide their fawns here!

Ran out after dinner to look for some mushrooms in the creekbottom. I didn't find any but I did get a special treat while I was there! My first fawn of the year!

The cat bring him back too,lol That's one freaky little toad!

I haven't had much to talk about here the first two weeks, but things are looking up the last few days! Been working several birds for 3 mornings in a row now. Had one come about 3 steps away from getting himself killed this morning but he never cleared the brush where I needed him to. I'm finally excited about turkey season again! Gobblers are NOT coming to the fields anymore here after fly down and are simply silently strutting in the timber after 9AM. Lots of lone hens walking away from their flocks early, but that doesn't seem to be doing much for making them vocal later in the day.... yet!

That's awesome... I like the color choice too! Speaking of kittens, I bet you will get a lot of........... HITCH HIKERS now,lol!

Good stuff man! Easiest way to find the new drops is on the way to the turkey blind with the headlamp glowing. Look for the eyes reflecting back at ya and they wont budge! Great to see you had time to snap a few pics to remember the encounter! I can't wait to see them little buggers running around here again!

Why is that....? If there's one thing hunters and golfers can agree on, is that any day you can get a "hole in one" is a good day,lol

Cool- you guys don't just toss them off onto the stretched out sheet with a big red "X" on it anymore or is that only for when the building is on fire... Good save up there today!

Another alternative for you Larry.... DIY swirling with enamel paints. No I haven't tried it yet, but believe me, I will. Go for it!

I thought this was going to be a Woodstock flashback story when I opened this post! That one looks like a keeper to me. Go back and look for it again,lol

Few shots from our Mothers Day brunch.. Food was AWESOME as expected, and the animals never disappoint!

I'm sure there must be some kind of mistake. I ain't taken the fall for this one! If that was the kind of comment that would make someone want to leave this site then I don't know what to tell ya.

Happy B-day Red-Taco! Hope it was a good one.

The skull looks great (for now). I mean no disrespect by criticizing your technique, but I think sealing it with that clear finish may have been a step you will regret a few months from now. No matter how good the whitening process seems to have gone, there will still be oils trapped in the bone that will continue to seep out under you finish. I did the same thing with my first couple of euro DIY'S and they eventually turned so yellow you would have thought they'd been hanging on the bar room wall before all the smoking bans. Not much you can do at that point besides taking a wire wheel to them. Leaving them "natural" is a much simpler fix when they start to get discolored and you can simply re-whiten them with your peroxide combination of choice.

You're joking right? That "pompous arrogant elitist" has probably done more for conservation and education than you could ever dream of. The "holier than thou" attitude is backed by years of knowledge and research. You shouldn't be offended by his sounding "snobbish" as you call it, if you don't open your mind to the real life ideas and experiences he lays out there for you. It's never too late to learn, even when you think you've got it all figured out on your own. That's not arrogance, that's simply one member trying to help another see things in a different light through his own personal experiences. If that's not for you, then you may have stopped at the wrong place my friend, because there seems to be a lot of that going on around here with guys sharing what they know first hand..

Well that's cool you found a good tracker, but she looks a little too small to be dragging them out,lol! Gonna need a bigger side-kick for her to practice tugging on now! One of the coolest things I've ever seen in the woods was a Deer Search dog on a blood trail. Same breed as yours, and although we didn't recover the deer, that little pooch put all its heart into that hunt! Ended up finding that deer myself MONTHS after the shot was taken and nearly a mile away, so there's no telling if my shot was even fatal or if someone else popped it. after the fact. Last spring at the hunters safety course, I ran into her handler educating the class on what these little guys are capable of when it comes down to deer recovery. You just can't imagine it until you see it for yourself. Her dog is now handicapped and unable to track any longer, but it's desire is still there. Apparently there is some bad blood between her and DS that she didn't want to go into detail about. I couldn't help but ask if she was more of a deer lover, or more of a dog lover...... her reply..., "deer lover" believe it or not! Good luck with "Fido", and hope to hear of some successful recoveries in the future from you!

Sweet gobbler DP! Great field photo too! Got any stats to share on that sucka? He looks like a monsta heavyweight.

That's what it's all about! Me and my sister hunted all last turkey season and never heard a single gobble together. I'm hoping we can at least fire one or two up for her between tomorrow and Saturday. She's getting tired of looking at my pictures and then we never see or hear anything when she's with me,lol That's just the way it goes.

I completely understand that game plan as being effective, but I'm not sure it would be something I'd try with a new hunter. It's easy to loose track of direction in the heat of the moment being a veteran on a shifty gobbler and I'd hate to see that shot opportunity present itself if a bird got between the shooter and caller without noticing it. With a newbie or youth hunter, I don't think I would go with that approach, but that's just me trying to eliminate any chance of catastrophes in advance before they become life altering reality to an up and coming hunter. JMO.

I am by no means trying to sound like "Mr. Perfect" turkey hunter, but I've only goofed up on one gobbler/bird which just so happened to be my first hunt.., of my first year chasing turkey.., and the first spring tom I ever called to the barrel. I can't even say I "missed" as the tom rolled and got back on his feet. Not knowing much about turkey hunting at the time, I thought he would just walk off and lay down and die like a deer before he got out of sight in the open field so I let him run. He put some air under his wings and sailed clear out of the field and straight down hill just over the tree tops. Shot was 30 yards. Gun was a Remmy 870 scoped and had one of them specialty after market "Extra -Full turkey chokes". That has to be my most memorable turkey hunts to date as much as I'd like to forget about it. I'll also admit to not killing nearly as many gobblers as many of you on this site, so maybe I'm just too picky in my shot selection since then, since I got rid of all them specialty turkey gun bells and whistles that made me feel like a sniper.

Maybe THIS will help clear things up! Digitally enhanced it for ya- haha!